The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has criticised the Student Loans Company Limited after a series of data breaches involving customers’ records. The business reported several incidents where information held about customers, including medical details and a psychological assessment, had been sent to the wrong people. An ICO investigation found that not enough checks were carried…
Category: Non-U.S.
Avast takes community forum offline after data breach
Jeremy Kirk reports: Prague-based antivirus company Avast said Monday it took its community forum offline after a data breach, but payment information was not compromised. Usernames and nicknames, email addresses and encrypted passwords were obtained in an attack over the weekend, wrote Avast CEO Vince Steckler on a company blog. The attack affected less than 400,000 of…
UK: University of Nottingham mistakenly sends e-mail containing personal details of job applicants
Marcus Boocock reports: Confidential details of thousands of job applicants were mistakenly sent via e-mail by the University of Nottingham. An attachment sent to users of the university’s job site contained the names of 4,751 people who had applied for a job there. It also listed whether they had been successful. A spokesman for the…
South Korea Increases Data Breach Fines, Lowers Liability Threshold
James Lim reports: Recent data breach amendments (Bill No. 10479) to South Korea’s framework data protection law increase available fines; lower the liability threshold that regulators must show to levy fines; allow compensation of individual plaintiffs without a showing of damages; and require notification of affected individuals within 24 hours of discovering a breach, a Korea…
Denbighshire: Council privacy blunders exposed
The North Wales Daily Post reports: A lost iPad containing confidential minutes and client records that were accidentally destroyed included in a report to be tabled next week A list of addresses were lost in a street and an iPad was left on a plane in a catalogue of Data Protection Act breaches. Minutes of…
After data breach, Bitly enables 2-factor authentication
Joel Locsin reports: Following a data breach discovered last week, URL shortening service Bitly has enabled two-factor authentication to protect its account holders. In a blog post, Bitly chief technology officer Rob Platzer also said they traced the compromise to an unauthorized access to the account of one of the company’s employees. “We immediately enabled two-factor authentication…